A regularly-scheduled fire drill lasted longer than expected Wednesday, Sept. 28 leaving students and staff waiting outside for nearly 25 minutes, about 15 minutes longer than usual. Fire drills verify that the fire alarms are working well and to ensure things run efficiently in the event of an evacuation. Students and teachers gathered outside in the chilly weather, many wondering why the fire drill was taking longer than usual.

Assistant Principal of Operations Steve Parnther credits the length of the fire drill delay to an unexpected change in fire drill protocol.

“When we have a fire drill, we work with the Skokie police, the fire department. With this particular drill on Wednesday, we invited the Skokie Fire Department Captain and the Skokie Fire Inspector. We activated this drill at 10:36 and when we met with them, right before we started the drill, they informed us they are going to be essentially checking the strobes, door latches, and a bunch of different things,” Parnther said.  “[These were] things we weren’t really aware of, because otherwise we would have informed and warned our staff.”

Students voiced their concerns as the drill ran into fourth period.

“It’s really cold and I’m wondering why this is taking so long, it is much longer than usual,” senior Nicole Magdaleno said.

“Honestly, I really don’t mind, cause I have history,” junior Sumaiya Norman said. Norman stood in the back of the school during the drill.

History teacher Linda Mulligan expressed that she and other staff also noticed the length of this drill.

“We were mostly just following protocols, we didn’t know why it was taking so long,” Mulligan said.

Some students complained of the cold weather that they had to stand in, while a couple others didn’t mind as much as they would miss parts of their next class. After the fire drill was over, students and staff were allowed to go inside and continue on with their days as normal.